LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



1 



UNITED STATES OE AMERICA. 




a 



Life's Race Well Run," 



A SKETCH OF ITS HISTORY. 



BY 

E. K PARKER, M. D. 




Illustrated by Prof. Henry van Ingen. 




POUGHKEEPSIE, N. Y. : 

HIRAM S. WILTSIE, 
322 Main Street. 






Copyright, 1884, by E. H. Parker and Henry van Ingen. 



Haight & Dudley, Printers, 
Poughkcepsie, N. Y. 










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51 




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These LINES, few and simple as they are, have had a 
curious history. They were written by the undersigned, 
early in the year 1879, ar >d were printed for use at a funeral 
in the spring of the same year. From one of the copies so 
printed, my friend, Prof. Wm. H. Crosby, of Poughkeepsie, 
N. Y., made a translation into Latin verse. By his sugges- 
tion, both the English and the Latin version were printed 
in the New York Observer, in its issue for May 13, 1880, his 
name being attached to the Latin version, and my own to 
the English. 

I was not aware that the lines had attracted any atten- 
tion, until, at the time of the funeral services of President 
Garfield, at Cleveland, Ohio, it was announced, in the news- 
papers, that this inscription was placed at the head of his 
coffin : 

"Life's race well run, 
Life's work well done, 
Life's crown well won, 
Now comes rest." 

This, I supposed, was the imperfect remembrance of my 
lines as printed in the Observer, and, except that I was 
gratified that they should have thus lingered in anyone's 
memory, I thought no more about it. 

In the Summer of 1882 I also saw it stated in a news- 
paper that the same lines had been used in Brompton 



Cemetery, England, "In memory of Elizabeth Jones, who 
died May 18, 1 88 1 ; for 14 years the faithful servant and 
friend of Alexandra, Princess of Wales, by whom this 
monument is erected." That this selection was made from 
the report of the Garfield obsequies I have no doubt. That 
it pleased me to have my lines attract the notice of so dis- 
tinguished a lady I will not affect to deny ; but I gave 
no further thought to the matter. 

In the autumn of 1882, Mr. William H. Crosby received 
a letter from his brother, Professor Howard Crosby, of New 
York City, enclosing one from Mr. W. R. Rose, literary 
editor of the Cleveland, Ohio, Sunday Sun, asking Profes- 
sor C. if he could tell him who was the author of the lines, 
and saying that there was great curiosity in Cleveland con- 
cerning them. Professor Howard Crosby did know, and 
his reply to Mr. Rose will be given subsequently. Mean- 
time I make two extracts from the Cleveland Sun. The 
first appeared August 13, 1882, and is as follows : 

"FOUR FAMOUS L.INES." 



THE SENTIMENT THAT WAS INSCRIBED AT THE HEAD 
OF THE GARFIELD CASKET." 



" ' Life's race well run, 
Life's work well done, 
Life's crown well won, 
Now comes rest.' 

" The readers of the Sun are no doubt familiar with the 
above lines, which first attracted attention at the time of 
President Garfield's funeral, appearing on a tablet at the 
head of the casket when the body lay in state in the cata- 
falque in Monumental Park. Claims having been made by 



various persons, either as to the authorship of the lines, or of 
having furnished them to the committee, a Sun reporter took 
it upon himself yesterday to get at the facts. At the time 
of the Presidential obsequies, — almost a year ago — Messrs. 
George W. Gardner and \Y. H. Eckman started out for 
the purpose of obtaining a suitable motto or verse with 
which to decorate the catafalque. After a fruitless search, 
they happened across the Rev. J. D. Jones, of the ' Float- 
ing Bethel,' who, having the lines in question in his mem- 
orandum-book, showed them to the gentlemen, and they, 
struck at first sight with their appropriateness, commis- 
sioned Mr. John Vanek to inscribe them on a suitable tablet. 
" Further inquiry developed the fact that during the 
President's illness a gentleman from Boston, then visiting 
the city, informed Mr. C. C. Baldwin, Secretary of the 
Western Reserve Historical Society, that he had come 
across an exceedingly pretty poem in the Latin language, 
but by a modern author, the following being a copy : — 

'"Itaque Relinquitur Sabbatismus Populo Dei.' — Vulgate. 

" ' Cursus vitas bene actus, 
Opus vitse omne factum, 
Laurus vitae acquisita ; 
Nunc venit quies. 

"'Res adversae praeterlapsae, 
Res tentantes non inventae, 
Navis littus jam attingens ; 
Nunc venit quies. 

" ' Cedit nunc fides videndo, 
Dies nocti supervenit, 
Lux a Jesu impertitur ; 
Nunc venit quies. 

"'Breve tempus nos manemus, 
Sed aut jam aut saltern sero 
Portam nobis mors recludit — 
Tunc venit quies.' 



"The theme is 'There Remaineth therefore a Rest to 
the People of God,' Hebrews iv. 9, and the translation of 
the first verse is the motto placed at the head of this article. 

" Mr. Baldwin was so much impressed with the beauty of 
the poem that he caused it to be printed and distributed 
among his literary friends. After the news was received 
here of the President's death, a life size photograph of him 
was exhibited in Teal's window, and appended to it was a 
copy of the Latin poem. Owing to Mr. Baldwin's absence 
from the city, nothing definite could be learned as to the 
authorship of the poem or to the person who gave it to 
Mr. Baldwin." 

The following, which is the second extract, appeared in 
the Situ, August 27, 1882 : 

"A LITERARY PROBLEM." 



" The query as to who is the author of the appropriate 
lines which were placed at the head of President Garfield's 
coffin during the funeral ceremonies in Cleveland has ex- 
cited interest far beyond the precincts of Cleveland, as will 
be shown by the following letter, recently received by a 
prominent lady of this city, from Mr. F. H. Mason, Amer- 
ican Consul at Bale, Switzerland : 

'"United States Consulate, 

'"Bale, July 17, 1882. 

"'Dear Mrs. : 

" ' Let me recall myself to your remembrance, and 
trouble you with an inquiry. 

" ' While Mrs. Mason and I were visiting recently in Eng- 
land, a dinner-table discussion arose as to the origin of the 
stanza which was inscribed and placed over the coffin of 

14 



President Garfield, when his remains lay in state in Cleve- 
land last September. It was something like this: 

" ' Life's work well done, 
Life's race well run, 
Life's crown well won, 
Now comes rest. 

" ' No one seems to know definitely who the author of 
these lines may be, and a claimant for that honor has re- 
cently appeared in England. Mrs. Mason and I ventured 
to assure our friends that you, who were so prominently 
identified with the beautiful decorations at Cleveland, can 
tell all about it ; and this is what I am taking the liberty to 
trouble you about. 

'"F. H. MASON.' 

" The lady to whom the letter was addressed, being 
unable to enlighten the writer, communicated with a Har- 
vard student acquaintance, who, in turn, referred the ques- 
tion to Mr. Justin Winser, librarian of Harvard College, 
with the statement that Professor Crosby, of Boston, had 
been credited with the authorship. The following was Mr. 
Winser's reply : 

'" Ca.mpobello, N. B., Aug. 20, 1882. 
" 4 SlR: Your note regarding the Latin verses reached 
me here, where I have no reference books. I do not 
imagine, however, they could help me much in tracing 
verses which seem to me so palpably modern. I have no 
knowledge of Professor Crosby. 
" ' Very truly, 

'"JUSTIN WINSER."' 

The next publication by Mr. Rose was in the Cleveland 
Sitn of September 17, 1882, and includes Prof. Howard 

15 



Crosby's letter before referred to. The article is as follows : 
"LIFE'S RACE WELL RUN." 



THE ORIGIN AND MUTATIONS OF A NOW FAMOUS POEM. 



"On the 13th of last August the Sun detailed the cir- 
cumstance connected with the use of the famous stanza 
which was placed at the head of the bier during the Gar- 
field obsequies. The article embraced the Latin poem — a 
translation of the first verse of which was the stanza refer- 
red to — and also stated that the name of the author was 
not known, but that the poem was obtained from Mr. C. C. 
Baldwin, Secretary of the Western Reserve Historical So- 
ciety, and that he procured it from a Boston friend. By a 
singular coincidence, United States Consul Mason, now in 
Switzerland, wrote quite recently to a friend in this city 
desiring information concerning the author's name, and his 
letter was published in the Sun of August 27th. In view 
of the general interest in the subject which was aroused by 
the publication of these two articles, an attache of this pa- 
per determined to ascertain, if possible, the name of the 
author, and whatever of history the poem might possess. 
In pursuance of this resolve he addressed letters of inquiry 
to a number of gentlemen prominent in both eastern and 
western literary circles, but — with one exception — the per- 
sons addressed promptly and courteously regretted their 
inability to answer the query. The exception noted was 
the answer of the Rev. Howard Crosby, the distinguished 
Greek scholar and the eminent clergyman of New York 
City, who kindly sent the annexed letter, which not only 
fully establishes the identity of the author, but also brings 
to light a very interesting bit of literary history : — 

"'DEAR SIR — The author of 'Life's Race Well Run' is 
Dr. Edward H. Parker, of Poughkeepsie. It was composed 

16 



by him in 1879, while riding in his gig. The Latin version 
was made by my brother, Professor William H. Crosby, of 
Poughkeepsie. Both English and Latin versions appeared 
in the New York Observer, May 13, 1880. I enclose a gen- 
uine copy of the verses, sent me by Dr. Parker himself. 
You see it differs from the copy you sent me in having only 
one ' well ' in the first verse. 

" 'Yours very respectfully, 

'•'HOWARD CROSBY, 

"' 115 East 19th Street. 

" ' New York, September n, 1882.' 

" The original poem, as per copy furnished by the Rev. 
Dr. Crosby, reads as follows : 

" ' There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.' 

"'Life's race well run, 
Life's work all done, 
Life's victory won, 
Now cometh rest. 

"'Sorrows are o'er, 
Trials no more, 
Ship reacheth shore, 
Now cometh rest. 

" ' Faith yields to sight. 
Day follows night, 
Jesus gives light, 

Now cometh rest. 

" ' We awhile wait. 
But, soon or late, 
Death opes the gate, 
Then cometh rest.' 

" The reader will observe the difference between the 
wording of the first verse of the poem just given and the 
four lines used during the obsequies, the latter reading : 

17 



"'Life's race well run. 
Life's work well done, 
Life's crown well won. 
Now comes rest.' 

" But this dissimilarity is undoubtedly to be accounted 
for by the rather singular fact that Doctor Parker's original 
poem, in English, after being rendered by Professor Crosby 
in Latin, was translated from the latter version back into 
English by some unknown writer, and in this way the 
changes in wording occurred. The extra use of the word 
'well,' alluded to in the Rev. Mr. Crosby's letter, probably 
was intended by the last translator to give a stronger 
rhythmical force to the lines, and the rendering of the 
' Laiims vita' of the third line into 'Life's crown' instead 
of ' Life's victory ' is only a simple variation of the same 
poetical figure. Another odd mistake was the general im- 
pression that t-he Latin version was the original form of the 
verses. But the Rev. Howard Crosby's letter corrects this 
error, and adds another interesting link to the chain of 
memorable events which surrounded the funeral rites of 
the lamented Garfield. 

" It may interest many to learn that the Latin version, as 
printed in the Sun some weeks ago, has been rendered into 
English by a gentleman who was ignorant, as all of us were, 
that the Latin was itself a translation from original English. 
About the time that the discussion as to its origin began, 
Mr. C. C. Baldwin handed to Auditor Levi Bauer a copy of 
the Latin version, and pleasantly challenged him to render 
it into English. Mr. Bauer did nothing with it at the time, 
but a week or so later Mr. Baldwin and Mr. E. R. Perkins 
happening in the auditor's office on business, the three sat 
down and went to work upon it, all three uniting in the 
translation, the versification alone being left solely to Mr. 
Bauer. As they proceeded, Mr. Bauer said he was satisfied 

18 



that the orignal was not Latin, as was generally supposed, 
but English. We give the version produced by these gen- 
tlemen, as it will prove curious and interesting to the 
reader to compare the two and note how the double trans- 
formation has affected it. The repetitions of the word 
'well' in the first stanza was not, Mr. Bauer tells us, a 
strict interpretation, but a liberty deliberately taken with 
the original : 

"'Life's race well run, 
Life's work well done, 
Life's crown well won ; 
And now comes rest. 

" ' All troubles o'er, 
We strive no more, 
Ship touching shore ; 

And now comes rest. 

"'Faith yields to sight, 
Day conquers night. 
From Christ comes light ; 
And now comes rest. 

"'Brief time we wait, 
For soon or late, 
Death swings the gate ; 

And then comes rest.'" 

One month later (Oct. 19, '82) Mr. Rose published 
another article upon the same subject, in the New York Ob- 
server. It goes over the same ground, giving a few addi- 
tional incidents. Its closing paragraph is as follows : 

"In the rooms of the Western Reserve Historical So- 
ciety, in the city of Cleveland, are preserved and exhibited 
many sad mementoes of the dead President. The bier 
which bore the noble clay, the casket which enclosed the 
wasted form, the canopy which overhung the people's chief- 
tain — all are there ; and, in their midst, shine out the 

19 



tender lines which those who knew him best thought most 
fitting to raise above the revered dead." 



Here, I supposed, was the end of the discussion. But 
two months later (Dec. 21, '82) the following article ap- 
peared in the New York Observer: 

"THE GEN. GARFIELD EPITAPH." 



"A CURIOUS SEARCH AFTER ITS ORIGIN — AN IMPUTATION 
OF PLAGIARISM — THE FACTS OBTAINED." 



" U. S. Consulate, 
"Manchester, Eng., Nov. 4, 1882. 

" To the Editors of the New York Observer : 

" The wide interest which has been awakened by the pub- 
lication of the original lines which appeared in connection 
.with President Garfield's funeral, at Cleveland, leads me to 
furnish some important data which cannot fail to further 
enliven a discussion already historic. 

" A few days after the funeral of our martyr President, 
Mr. H. J. Fairchild, of Manchester, Eng., a partner in the 
great house of H. B. Claflin & Co., of New York, called at 
my office and requested me to ascertain, if I could, where 
the lines in question were procured by those who selected 
them for use in connection with the obsequies. 

" He stated that an English friend had asked him to do 
so, because he believed, that in 1878 he prepared an epitaph 
for his brother's monument in very nearly the same words. 
I at once wrote to Gen. D. G. Swaim, at Washington, with 
a view of finding out where the lines came from. His very 
kind and prompt reply was as follows : ' In regard to your 
query: I have run the matter down as closely as I can, and 
send you what, to me, is the original. I send you the 

20 



poem complete. It sounds very much like a quotation ; 
but, as you will see, I have consulted Mr. Spofford, Libra- 
rian of Congress, who has everything of that kind at his 
fingers' ends, and he is unable to find it contained in any 
former publication. So I think, in view of this, we can 
hardly consider Parker, whoever he is, a plagiarist : 

'"IN MEMORIAM,"' 
'"J. A. G.'" 



'"BY E. P. PARKER.' 



["'From the Hartford Courant.'~\ 

' In peace, at last ! amid the hush of strife 

Our ruler sleeps, secure from plaint or blame ; 
The tragedy and triumph of his life 

Blend in the splendor of unfading fame. 

Our prayers and tears, poured out like summer rain, 
Stayed not the Hand that works by pain and loss ; 
His will be done, whose love ordains again 
The bitier cup, the Garden, and the Cross. 

' Great Heart ; brave soul, capacious, cultured mind ; 

Most gallant foe ; most gentle, generous friend ; 
Scholar and soldier ; statesman, of the kind 
Who purity with self-devotion blend ! 

' The true unswerving aim, the purpose high, 

The faithful patient service, — wear the crown : 
No sacrifice that loyalty could try 

But shines, transfigured, in his bright renown. 

' Not less the nation's than the household loss ; 

Nor less the public than the private woe ; 
His country's children share his children's cross — 
Their tears of love and grief together flow. 

' Life's work well done, life's battle bravely fought, 

And life itself poured out in duty's ways ; 
Hallowed by death what lips and life had taught, 

And name and memory wreathed with deathless praise 

21 



"Thy glory like some newly-drawing sun, 

Resplendent breaks throughout our dark cloud of fate ! 
Immortal honor thou hast dearly won ! 
Nor richer thou than we, in thine estate. 

"Oh, good and faithful servant! fare thee well! 
'Well done!' innumerable voices cry; 
And happier through our salutations swell 

With 'Welcome,' 'Welcome!' from an answering sky." 

" Mr. Spofford wrote General Swaim : 'In reply to your 
communication of 29th March, I have to advise you that 
the phrase quoted does not appear to be in any of the an- 
thologies of poetical quotations.' 

" The above evidence, as may well be supposed, was not 
conclusive, and I wrote Mrs. Garfield, in the hope that 
more light might be thrown on the subject. Her reply was 
in these words : ' In answer to your inquiry concerning the 
source of the lines which were placed at the head of Presi- 
dent Garfield's casket, I am unable to give the source from 
which they came.' 

" Disappointed again, and with curiosity sharpened, I felt 
that this was a strange circumstance, and feared that my 
efforts to trace the history of the lines were doomed to fail. 
A few days after receiving Mrs. Garfield's letter, Consul 
Mason, of Bale, Switzerland, visited me. I mentioned the 
above facts to him, and he at once said that he could, he 
believed, find out through a friend in Cleveland, his old 
home, all about the matter. He wrote to his friend, and 
his letter brought forth a full statement, detailing the his- 
tory of the poem containing the lines as they were written 
in America. 

" However, the fact that nearly the same lines were com- 
posed in England in 1878, more than a year before the pub- 
lication of Mr. Parker's poem, has seemed to me worthy of 
being placed on record, and I requested Mr. Mills, who in- 



dited them, to favor me with a full history of the same. 
He has kindly done so, and I send his letter to you (Mr. 
Mills having at my solicitation consented to its publication), 
believing that this true statement will be deeply interesting, 
for several reasons, to many readers of your journal. It 
furnishes evidence of the strange coincidences which some- 
times occur in literary work, often giving rise to charges of 
plagiarism. Inventors frequently find that their supposed 
original ideas are already patented ; but, in literary crea- 
tions, such perfect parallels as are found in the now famous 
lines are rare. 

" I am sure the publication of Mr. Mills' letter in full will 
be best, as affording his own version of the facts ; and the 
modest desire not to have his name mentioned is only char- 
acteristic of one whose merits are well known here, and 
who has always been disinclined to ' let his light shine.' 

" One word more : The copy of the poem sent me by 
General Swaim is credited to E. P. Parker; and if this 
proves to be the author of the lines used at President Gar- 
field's funeral, the suggestion of General S. that the lines 
might be a 'quotation' will show how nearly correct he 
was in his surmise, — as the underscored lines in the sixth 
stanzas of ' E. P. P.'s' poem are a quotation, probably, 
from the poem under discussion. 

" Very truly yours, 

"ALBERT D. SHAW." 



"COPY OF MR. MILLS' LETTER." 

" NORTHWOLD, ALTRINCHAM, 

"7th November, 1882. 
"Dear Colonel Shaw: 

" I return with cordial thanks the papers you lent 

me, having read them with an interest beyond the personal 

23 



interest which, as you know, I feel in the lines whose origin 
they discuss. Indeed, it is with some relief I find that the 
trouble I imposed, on your good nature has resulted in the 
disclosure of a bit of literary history curious enough to re- 
ward you, quite apart from our original motives for the 
search. Assuming as I suppose we are bound to do, that 
the simultaneous and separate origin of one metrical trip- 
let on two continents was a matter of pure coincidence, the 
circumstances attending the production and development 
into their present form of the American lines, and the mys- 
tery which seems still to exist about their use in connec- 
tion with President Garfield's funeral, are, in themselves,- 
sufficiently remarkable. As, however, you ask me to write 
down what I had already told you of my own share in the 
coincident production of the lines, I proceed to do so. 

" My brother Samuel died at Ashton-under-Lyne in 1877. 
He had been an active yet unobtrusive man in public mat- 
ters, and was widely and affectionately known. About a 
year after his death I went to see his completed monument 
in the Dukihfield cemetery, and it occurred to me that two 
or three memorial lines should be added to the bare facts 
inscribed upon the stone. Knowing that the available 
space was small, and having always thought that brevity 
and a certain severe simplicity were the final, if not indis- 
pensable, graces of an epitaph, I determined to adhere as 
closely as possible to monosyllabic Saxon. I made three 
or four attempts, none of which seemed to me adequate, 
but I forwarded to my widowed sister-in-law the tiny slips 
of paper on which they were written, requesting her to take 
her choice, and I retained no copies. One of them ran as 

follows : 

"His work well done; — 
His race well run, 
His crown well won, — 
Here let him rest. 

24 



" Of the verbal accuracy of the last (fourth) line I am not 
absolutely sure, but I know it was a bare and monosyllabic 
translation of the conventional ' Requiescat.' 

" On reading the above quatrain, it occurred to me that 
it did not in a sufficiently distinctive way embody his own 
firm and earnest Christian creed, and I therefore expanded 
it as follows : 

" His work well done, 
His race well run, 
His crown well won. 
Gentle and just, 
His soul is gone 
To Christ, his trust : — 
Here is but dust. 

" With a further effort at compression, I wrote : 

" Work well done, 
Crown well won, 
Tender and just, 
Christ was his trust : — 
Here is but dust. 

" But this was the least satisfactory, as the effort at 
brevity resulted in a confused apposition of persons and 
things. I should add that no use was made of any of these 
forms, I believe, for want of space on the slab. 

"In 1880 an old friend of mine, Dr. W. B. Hodgson, 
Professor of Political Economy at the Edinburgh Univer- 
sity, died suddenly at Brussels. Soon after this event I 
wrote, at the request of his widow, a few memorial lines 
intended to concentrate into the brief form of an epitaph 
the main features of his career and character. At its close 
I introduced two lines which were a reminiscence of the 
old form, of which no public use had been made. The lines 
will, I believe, appear in the last page of the memoir of Dr. 
H. shortly to be published. As bearing on the matter in 
hand, however, I copy them here : 

25 



" One born to teach 
Clear thought, well-ordered speech, 
And social law, for all through each ; 
Devout on no dogmatic plan, 
But praising God by serving man : 
Testing all lore by honest sense, 
Intolerant only of pretence ; 
Wise, winning, witty to the end, 
The trusted guide, the genial friend 
Lies here, his work well done, 

His rest well won. 



" This little tribute had been seen by two or three friends, 
to whom the subject of it had been known, and, amongst 
the rest, by my friend, Rev. Alex. MacKennal, of Bowdon. 
On the day when the obsequies of President Garfield were 
reported in our daily papers, Mr. McK. asked me (in the 
railway carriage, on our homeward journey from town) if I 
-had seen the Times or Standard. On my replying in the 
negative, he informed me of the strange coincidence, ex- 
claiming, 'They've put your verses over Garfield's bier.' 
On seeing the reports, I was even more struck than he, as 
the complete triplet appeared, which he had not seen, but 
which I knew I had employed on the former occasion. I 
endeavored afterwards to recover the old slips, but could 
not do so, as they had been lost or misplaced. My sister- 
in-law, however, remembered every line of the triplet, and 
fully confirmed my own version of them. Of course, we 
are now shut up to the conclusion of coincidence of 
thoughts and expression, and can only speculate curiously, 
as you and I have done, on theories of possible occult in- 
fluences, bearing at once on two minds separated by great 
distance. It may be that, however unlikely we at first 
thought the separate double production of a succession of 
lines of the same rhythm, rhyme, and idea, we may — now 
that the impossibility of plagiarism seems demonstrated — 

26 



begin to think that when once the key-note was struck, as 
it might readily be in two minds given to the spinning of 
metre, the rest would follow by instinctive suggestion, very 
much as one tone sets vibrating to more than one ear the 
related harmonic tones which make up the triad of the 
common chord. But this, of course, can only be conjec- 
tural, and does not dissipate the whole cloud of mystery. 
You will have observed two differences between the Amer- 
ican hues and my own: ist, That instead of the word 
' Life's,' at the beginning of each line in the former, I had 
used the possessive pronoun ' His '—probably from a pref- 
erence, very natural at the time, for the personal over the 
general or abstract idea; and, 2d, that the order of the 
'race' and the 'work' is inverted. But this latter differ- 
ence is of little import, and scarcely disturbs the sense of 
identity. 

"As you know, I have written this letter wholly on your 
request, not by way of laying any claim, much less of im- 
puting any wrong. The very circumstantial account now 
given of the origin of the American version of the lines, 
though wonderful in its own way puts the theory of possi- 
ble plagiarism wholly out of court. For the rest, I confess 
that the introduction of my name into any public discussion 
of the question would be painful to me personally. 
" I am, dear Colonel Shaw, 

"Yours very sincerely, 
("Signed) -JOHN MILLS." 

Having published nothing myself concerning the lines— 
if I except a short note to Mr. Rose, which he gave to the 
Cleveland Stin, I thought it wise to reply to this, and the 
following communication appeared in the Observer a month 
later, (January 25th, 1883) : 



27 



"THE GARFIELD EPITAPH." 



"AND 'PARKER, WHOEVER HE IS.'" 

" To the Editors of the New York Observer : 

"So far as one can judge, after reading the letters of 
Colonel Shaw and Mr. Mills contained in the Observer for 
December 21, it is about time that 'Parker, whoever he is' 
should make his appearance. Adsuni qui feci. 

" No one, probably, has been more surprised than myself 
at the interest concerning the lines commencing ' Life's 
race well run ' shown in so many and so different directions. 
That this is due to the almost accidental use of the first 
stanza, though in a mutilated form, on the occasion of Gen- 
eral Garfield's obsequies at Cleveland, Ohio, I am well 
aware. But attention having been drawn to them and in- 
quiry made as to their authorship, I take the liberty to send 
you a simple statement of their history, doing this the more 
readily because there has been a sort of suggestion that I 
have been guilty of plagiarism. 

" To begin with this last matter, I say, emphatically and 
distinctly, that there has been no plagiarism on my part at 
least. If anything was ever original with any one, these 
lines were original with me. Written as they were, in the 
early part of 1879, they certainly could not have been pla- 
giarized from • the lines written by E. P. Parker, — with 
whom I do not have the honor of an acquaintance, — after 
General Garfield's death ; and those lines as quoted by 
Colonel Shaw have but one of mine incorporated in them. 
It is more probable that this was suggested by the report 
of the inscription at Cleveland. 

" Mr. Mills' claim is more curious, and I have no reason 
to doubt that he is entirely truthful in his statement, ac- 
cepting the facts as a curious coincidence. But, if I under- 
stand him, he claims to have written these lines, with some 

28 



others, in 1878, and to have given the slips on which they 
were written to his sister-in-law, who cannot now find them, 
but remembers them perfectly, — and they were seen by no 
one else. It would be very easy for me to turn the tables 
on him by saying that it is very strange that such a claim 
should be put in on such evidence only as the memory of 
the claimant and of a connection of his. I might also 
point out the fact that the lines added in the two subse- 
quent efforts fall away from the character and dignity of 
those under discussion,— so that in a literary court I should 
probably have the advantage. 

" But, as I have said, I accept his statement as entirely 
truthful and accurate. But then, how could I have pla- 
giarized that which was never put in print, and which ex- 
isted only in the memory of two persons in England ? It 
is absurd to suppose it, and I think that General Swaim 
will ' hardly consider Parker, whoever he is, a plagiarist.' 

" May I add a few words concerning the lines and their 
history? They were written early in 1879, on tne occasion 
of the death of a valued friend of myself and my family, 
being the result of reflections on her busy, useful, Christian 
life, when I found myself obliged to take daily a long drive 
to see a patient. Medical men, I apprehend, do a large share 
of their thinking at such times ; at any rate, I know I do. 
They were printed for convenince, that they might be sung 
at the funeral of my wife's mother, which occurred a few 
months later, and it was then, I suppose, that my friend, 
Professor Crosby, first saw them. It was at his request that 
they were printed in the New York Observer about a year 
afterward. At that time our names were attached to them 
— his to the Latin, and mine to the English version. He 
took a liberty with the third line, making it ' Laurus vitec 
acqaisita, because he could not work the word victory into 
his measure. I am free to say I do not like the change. 

29 



Moreover, I have the vanity to think the original is better 
than the Cleveland version. I deliberately broke up the 
successive use of the word zvell for three times (my first 
form), though it cost me some labor to do so. 

" You will not think it strange if I add that I look upon 
the whole poem (shall I venture to call it ?) as an unit, in- 
tended to embody my thoughts of that rest which follows 
'the changes and chances of this mortal life.' 
" I am yours respectfully, 

"EDWARD H. PARKER, M.D. 
" Poughkeepsie, N. Y." 



It is, perhaps, worth while to add to this that one of the 
newspapers published in Hartford, Conn., has, since. Colonel 
Shaw's communication was published, claimed the author- 
ship of the lines for the Rev. Dr. E. P. Parker of that city. 
The first half of the first line of the sixth stanza of his 
poem, as quoted by Colonel Shaw, is, as will be seen by re- 
ferring to it, " Life's work well done ; " and this is all the 
foundation that exists for this absurd claim. 

It would be foolish in me to pretend that I have not 
been interested in this discussion. 

The whole gives an illustration of the difficulties which 
arise in translating from one language into another (in this 
case a double process), especially when under the limita- 
tions of a fixed measure. With each turn something of 
the aroma of the original will escape. 

It also shows how trivial are the circumstances which 
may give rise to suspicions, or, at least, suggestions of pla- 
giarism. 

30 



In conclusion, I will acknowledge that it touches me 
deeply that these simple lines have reached so many 
hearts. r 

EDWARD H. PARKER. 
Poughkeepsie, N. Y. 



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